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At ‘The Agency,’ It Isn’t Pretty

REST AND MOTION Becky Southwick at home.Credit
Melissa Lynn for The New York Times

AT Wilhelmina Models, Becky Southwick was sizing up Chloe, the latest girl to make her way into the agency’s Flatiron district offices. To the layman, Chloe, an attractive and statuesque strawberry blonde, has the fat-free torso and foal-like limbs of someone barely past puberty. Still, Ms. Southwick, an agent with a keen eye and a wicked tongue, is moved to pull out her ever present tape measure. Chloe’s hips have grown to a 36 ½ from a 35. Not good.

“You’re like the Pillsbury doughboy,” Ms. Southwick says, grabbing at the aspiring model’s soft midsection. “You’ve gotten fatter and yes, I said the f-word.”

Scenes like this come out rapid-fire on VH1’s new modeling industry reality series “The Agency,” where waistlines are measured, feelings are hurt and dreams are made. The show offers an unflinching look at the lives of modeling agents, who scout, mold and sell the young beauties that populate billboards, commercials and the pages of magazines.

The office, buzzing with a cacophony of ringing phones and frenzied, clipped conversations, feels at times like a college dorm. Hopeful young women often lack a certain get-up-and-go, seeming more inclined to pout than take advice. The bookers curse at every turn; Ms. Southwick whines about, well, everything; an assistant booker, Lola Milligan, is shown in one episode sleeping off a hangover at her desk.

Unlike other reality TV series about the modeling business, which tend to be coated in copious amounts of sugar, there are no soft coos of reassurance from Tyra Banks or tempered criticisms from Heidi Klum. “The Agency” serves it up raw.

But does the series really portray the vagaries of the business accurately? Reactions from the industry were mixed, with some insiders saying that agents often develop very close relationships with girls they’ve nurtured. But the insiders say agencies often employ a mixture of kid gloves and brutal critiques to get the best from their models. Two executives at rival modeling firms, however, said the show’s bitchiness was exaggerated, though they would not speak for attribution.

One veteran agent called the show, “overdramatized” and said it perpetuated negative stereotypes about the fashion industry. “No one is ever that harsh,” he said. “Yes, when we’re dealing with models, we’re to the point, but it’s not about humiliating or laughing at people. We are professionals.”

Another modeling manager at a top-tier firm described the show as a public relations gaffe. “Hey moms, entrust your daughter in my care, so I can constantly tell her how fat she is, how her nose is big, how her skin is bad,” he said. “I guess it makes for good television, but it doesn’t make good business sense to me.”

Sean Patterson, the president of Wilhelmina, had a quick response: “Anyone who believes that this isn’t real” is out of touch. He was in his office with several of the cast members discussing the show’s veracity.

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MEASURING UP Lola Milligan, left, and an aspiring model in a reality show that can be unflattering.Credit
VH1

Greg Chan, another booker, said he is often asked if the show is scripted. “We don’t have time to learn lines,” he said. “Trust me, we’re not actors.”

One former model also attested to a harsher reality. Amanda Kerlin, an author of the novel “Secrets of the Model Dorm,” has not watched the show, but said that while she worked in the industry, weekly measurements were not uncommon, especially during the time leading up to Fashion Week.

“After a while it messes with your psyche,” she said. “Some girls chose to starve themselves or took drugs to keep the weight off. A lot of girls develop bad eating habits. Some girls will have one Big Mac a day, smoke Marlboros and just drink a lot of coffee because it boosts your metabolism.”

On the show, the person who does most of the critiquing is Ms. Southwick, the delightfully acerbic hitwoman who has become the character to watch.

Brian Graden, president for entertainment at the MTV Networks Music Groups, which includes VH1, said that at parties, his version of a pop culture litmus test, people have mentioned her repeatedly. “They remember Becky, which is usually a good sign,” he said.

That’s no surprise to Ms. Southwick. “I’m the best one on the show to be quite honest,” she said. “If I wasn’t on the show, it wouldn’t be as good.”

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Sarah Raimo, who works in New York for the public relations firm Full Picture, said she watches it just to see what Becky is going to say next. “She’s so unremorseful and I think it’s hysterical. They hit the jackpot with her.”

Ms. Southwick and her takedowns are featured prominently. In Episode 2, she writes off a hopeful because of her chin. “It’s like Jay Leno’s,” she bellows. “Her chin looks like a canoe.”

ALREADY, Ms. Southwick is being compared to another mouthy Brit with a granite heart, Simon Cowell. “It’s a compliment, because 9 ½ out of 10 times he’s right and 9 ½ out of 10 times I’m right,” she said. “Love me or loathe me, most people will agree I’m telling the truth.”

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Becky Southwick with Pink. Both carve up young models on the show.Credit
Getty/VH1

But Ms. Southwick, who after three years at Wilhelmina now works at Trump Model Management (Episode 7 has more on that story), is not the show’s only acid tongue.

The first episode opens with Pink, a portly man covered in tattoos, slicing through a group of aspirants with the precision of a ninja. One attractive brunette is dismissed with a terse: “Hi, you’re too old and you’re too short.” A blonde with teeth that look like moving piano keys is told: “Your smile is off, and if your smile is off you can’t make money.” And still another stands in horror as she is methodically dissected. “Your face is asymmetrical, your eyes are too close together, your nose is off at an angle,” Pink says. “Do you want me to keep going?” Subtle he is not. Pink, who is as quick-witted in real life, remained unapologetic. “Do you want someone who is going to be nice, or honest with you?

Though the show is by no means a runaway hit like “Flavor of Love,” it has a modest following; the show had more than 800,000 viewers last week, up 84 percent from the previous week. Michael Hirschorn, executive vice president for original programming and production at VH1, said character-driven shows like this “have to build,” but he was happy with its performance. The series is the brain child of Mr. Patterson, who is also an executive producer and the show’s level-headed papa bear. He would not disclose financial details of the deal with VH1, but said he was happy with the arrangement.

Mr. Patterson believes the show’s unabashed honesty is a good thing, a form of public service even. “There are so many delusional people in this world that think they can actually be models,” he said.

“They’ll spend years of their life and an inordinate amount of money getting test shots done or working with some scam agency, pursuing something that they never had a chance to succeed at.”

Capitalizing on the show’s visibility, Mr. Patterson said he is aggressively revamping Wilhelmina’s high-end women’s division, which over the years has diminished in stature. James Scully, a fashion show casting agent, said Wilhelmina’s high-end men’s division is considered in the top five, if not No. 1, in the business, while its women’s division is “not even in the top 10,” lagging far behind agencies like IMG Models (home to Kate Moss and Gisele Bündchen).

Founded by Wilhelmina Cooper in 1967, the agency enjoyed great success in the ’70s and ’80s. Competition increased in the ’90s, when more upstart agencies entered the market and Wilhelmina’s luster began to fade. It once handled the careers of supermodels like Lauren Hutton and Iman, but now has few high-profile women.

Mr. Scully thinks the show can help change the agency’s fortunes: “If done right it could be a boon.”

It already has been, Mr. Patterson said. . Since the show made its debut, the agency has been deluged with e-mailed photo submissions and phone calls — about 1,000 more a week. At a recent open-call audition for the company’s children’s division, the line wrapped around the block. “We usually get about 50 to 60 people,” Mr. Patterson said. “This time it looked like a rock concert outside.”

Lorri Shackelford, another agent, said she has received several calls from clients requesting models that have appeared on the show. “People I haven’t talked to in years,” she said, “have been reaching out to me.”